DPAC remains concerned with DMSP

Source: Dairy Policy Action Coalition

The Dairy Policy Action Coalition (DPAC) held a press briefing at the Pennsylvania Farm Show, Jan. 11, to explain why dairy policy in the next Farm Bill is important to U.S. agriculture and to the future of dairy farms.

“We are here today as dairy farmers to express our recommendations on much-needed dairy policy reform in the next Farm Bill,” said Rob Barley, DPAC co-chair and a partner in Star Rock Farms in Conestoga, Pa. “We hope this press event helps to bridge the information gap that currently exists between dairy farms and the decisions being made for us inside the beltway.”

Last year the Senate passed and the House introduced a Farm Bill that made significant changes to federal dairy policy – generally known as the Dairy Security Act (DSA). Language in those bills included the Dairy Market Stabilization Program (DMSP), which makes supply management mandatory if a farmer wants to participate in a margin insurance program.

Both bills contain language that makes supply management mandatory if a farmer wants to participate in a margin insurance program.

Barley said, “We need to work together to develop policy that will allow U.S. dairy farmers access to margin insurance, also grow their business in a free market and be a reliable supplier to the growing global population,” Barley said.

DPAC believes that supply management is bad policy because it creates an artificial market and sends the wrong message to trading partners. Standalone margin insurance without supply controls, as proposed in the Goodlatte/Scott Amendment, would be an effective safety net for dairy farms and would save taxpayers $12 million when compared to the Senate version of the Farm Bill, they said.

The “dairy cliff” received national attention as part of the discussion of the fiscal cliff, when some suggested milk prices would go to $7/gallon if the Farm Bill was not reauthorized. Congress did a one-year extension that removed the risk of the price increase happening, DPAC explained

“The dairy market stabilization program (DMSP) is a good example of the need to bridge the information gap between people inside the Beltway writing dairy policy and people on the farm affected by it,” said Barley. “Supply management has no place in the future of U.S. agriculture.”

The Dairy Policy Action Coalition (DPAC) is a coalition of grassroots dairy producers actively participating, with a unified voice, on policies and issues affecting milk pricing.